African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has challenged President Bola Tinubu to show Nigerians measurable improvements in their living conditions arising from his economic reforms, saying favourable statistics mean little when households remain under severe pressure. The post Reforms: Show Nigerians gains of subsidy removal, Atiku challenges Tinubu appeared first on The Sun Nigeria .
From **Ndubuisi Orji, **Abuja
African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has challenged President Bola Tinubu to show Nigerians measurable improvements in their living conditions arising from his economic reforms, saying favourable statistics mean little when households remain under severe pressure.
Atiku said Nigerians who endured higher fuel, transportation and food costs following the removal of petrol subsidy deserved a clear account of what they had received in return for their sacrifices.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku faulted the administration’s defence of its reforms, arguing that their success should ultimately be measured by their impact on household incomes and living standards.
He particularly attacked the cost of petrol, comparing Nigeria with several other oil-producing countries.
According to him, Saudi Arabia sells petrol at about N778 per litre, Kuwait N872, Algeria N475 and Angola N441, while the United Arab Emirates also sells below Nigeria’s roughly N1,400 per litre despite substantially higher average incomes.
“These countries did not conclude that oil production requires punishing citizens at the pump. In different ways, they have used their natural-resource advantage to moderate the energy burden on their people,” Atiku said.
“Nigeria has turned that advantage upside down. Our people earn less, live under greater pressure and yet pay more for the fuel that drives transportation, farming, food distribution, manufacturing and virtually every aspect of daily life.”
Atiku argued that at N1,400 per litre, a worker earning the N70,000 statutory minimum wage would spend N56,000, or 80 per cent of the monthly wage, to buy 40 litres of petrol.
“How did your celebrated reform leave Nigerians paying vastly more for fuel while enjoying a lower standard of human development? That is not merely a pump-price debate. It is an affordability scandal,” he said.
The ADC candidate said the effect extended beyond motorists because higher energy and transportation costs were transmitted through the production and distribution chain into food prices and other household expenses.
Using tomatoes sold at Lagos’ Mile 12 Market as an example, Atiku said fuel costs were incurred repeatedly from cultivation and transportation from farms to wholesalers and retailers before eventually being passed to consumers. He also challenged the government to account for what he described as the huge financial gains associated with subsidy removal.
“Your government says subsidy removal mobilised about N15.8 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025. Nigerians surrendered cheap fuel. They paid more for transportation. They paid more for food. They watched the value of their wages collapse. “So what measurable improvement reached the average Nigerian household in exchange for that sacrifice?” he asked.
Atiku renewed his demand for what he called a comprehensive reconciliation of nearly N30 trillion in Federation Account revenues, deductions, savings, transfers and related entries. “If our reconciliation is wrong, publish the complete ledger and establish the facts.”
He alo demanded details of Import Duty Exemption Certificates which he claimed covered about N34 trillion worth of imports in 2025, including the beneficiaries, values of the exemptions, legal basis and public benefits.
Atiku dismissed the administration’s recent assurances that Nigerians would begin to experience relief from the reforms within weeks, describing the promise as politically timed ahead of the 2027 election.
“After more than three years of hardship, Nigerians are now being offered a temporary dose of political anaesthesia as 2027 approaches. God forbid that Nigerians should mistake election-season relief for economic recovery,” he said.
The former vice president also outlined an alternative approach under his proposed Atiku Economic Recovery Plan (AERP), saying it would seek to reduce fuel costs at source rather than restore the old subsidy regime wholesale.
Under the proposal, he said, support would be targeted at Nigerian crude supplied to domestic refineries under a capped and transparently budgeted arrangement subject to independent audit.
“The crude would be tracked. Refined products would be monitored. And the intervention would carry a clear consumer pass-through obligation so that the benefit does not stop with the refinery or marketer but reaches Nigerians at the pump,” Atiku said.
The post Reforms: Show Nigerians gains of subsidy removal, Atiku challenges Tinubu appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.
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